Avoiding the incoming crush of story spoilers due to the TV show was the impetus for me to finally get through The Last of Us after 3 attempts. I’ve bought and played every version of the game that’s been released, and this is the first time I’ve finished it.

What a ride. What a game.

The first time I tried playing it was in 2013, right after my second son was born, and that opening was absolutely crushing. It’s so good, but it also sets the emotional stakes *so high* that as a new parent, I couldn’t bear it. Once you get to the clickers, the stress level was through the roof as well, and tired, constantly running on empty, and then essentially having my professional life turned upside down at the same time… I put it aside for years, and didn’t pick it up again until the PS4 version, which I got well after its release.

And that opening. Hit just as hard. Stress level just as high. Made it further over the course of the next few years – about 1/3 of the way in, but then put it aside again. It was an extraordinary experience, but so tense that between parenting, my dad’s accident, startup life, I just couldn’t add any more stress to the equation, even fun stress, without breaking.

So it wasn’t until this time around that I finally got through the whole thing. And I’m glad I was able to do it without any major spoilers. Turns out some things I’d thought I’d heard re: spoilers weren’t what happened, so that was a bit of weird subversion.

But yeah. Also weirdly prescient re: pandemic life and peoples’ responses to it. I’ve never seen more fleshed out characters than in TLOU in any videogame. Even stuff like Mass Effect, which spends a lot more time with the characters. TLOU’s linear story allows for a lot more control and detail, and it makes for really rich, interesting, layered characters that have the depth to evolve while still being … true to themselves.

What a ride. What a game.